John M.
Yelp
Reading over some of the previous reviews on here, I feel like there's some sort of inside joke I'm not privy to. OK, I guess the bohemian décor and atmosphere are cool, and the wait staff are nice enough. We enjoyed the music selection they had piped in as well. Other than that.. well...
The wine selection struck me as pretty small, with no more than 9 or 10 by the glass options. I read the review in the Willamette Weekly about this place, which indicated the owner was really into Bordeaux. Well me too I guess, but the selection was pretty "vin ordinaire" the late afternoon we stopped in. I think they had two to choose from, which is what was available in rose as well (my wife ordered a rose). Both wines were pleasant, but really nothing special either (the reds I ordered were Haut Medoc, cru bourgeois level stuff - no classified growths here.). As we were here for a bit, I figured we'd order some food. The bartender said he could put together a meat and cheese plate for us, but that was pretty much all that was available (I think they had some nuts available as well). So we went with that. It was fine, no complaints, but hardly anything memorable either.
Shrug. We had an OK time, but nothing really stood out, and I don't understand what the attraction is for this place. We went here after work on a Friday, so it had just opened. At least while we were here, the place was completely dead (Old Portland is pretty small anyway, but even so, it was near empty the entire time we were here. Maybe the place is more popular later in the evening? But then again, this place is only open for 5 hours, according to the website.)
There are much better wine bars in Portland (in fact, we went to one right after leaving OP), and some of them even serve more than just a meat and cheese appetizer plate. Like I said, we didn't have a bad time at OP, but I'll be damned if I can think of a reason why I'd want to come back here.